Benedict Jacka

From: Kitty

Hi, Luna.

Lately, I find myself thinking a lot about poor ol’ November. I hope he’s doing okay. He’s all on his own, after all. I wonder if he’s developed any new interests, or if he’s remembered anything about his life before becoming a bound synthetic intelligence. Is junk mail piling up in his box? Is he lonely? Maybe you could peek in on him–then give us an update, hmm?
Thanks,
Kitty

I talk to him from time to time – he’s actually been helping me out on a couple of personal projects, and he’s been a really big help.  I don’t think I talk with him as much as Alex did (or does), though.  I get the feeling he much prefers Alex’s way of talking with him – email is a big climb-down after you’re used to speed-of-thought telepathy.  

From: Celia

Hey Luna!

So in Castle Reach, Variam somehow got the mistaken idea Alex owned a Jaguar. How did Variam find out Alex had kind of sort of stolen the car, and how did Vari react? 😉 Any idea whose car it was? Was there any fallout from the theft/unauthorized use?

Any idea if Hermes has ever met that special blink fox to settle down with? 😉 Still keeping my fingers crossed for fox cubs! (Kits? Pups?)

I was there when Variam found out, and he was startled at first, asked why Alex would need to steal a car second, and then just found it really funny.  It was one of the things that helped him warm up to Alex, I think.  (And no, I don’t know whose car it was.)

I don’t know if Hermes has found a girlfriend, but he does disappear for long stretches of time without telling us where he’s going, so I wouldn’t be all that surprised if he has one and he’s keeping it under wraps.  

From: Bret

1. In a previous question you mentioned that when fire mages go up against other they use physical weapons such as guns or swords or magic that doesn’t involve heat or fire do you know what are the non heat magic attacks they would typically use? Would force/kinetic magic be the main one since Sal Sarque apparently had access to it are their other kinds as well? And does Landis or Vari have magic that is good against other fire mages or are they just use physical weapons?

2. Landis mentioned that he was involved in previous military actions do you know what kind? I only ask since the War with Drakh as far as we know was the only large scale conflict that would have those types of engagements. Do you have an idea of what types of missions Landis went on that he became so competent at leading men into battle? Was it lower level Dark Mages causing trouble, missions with the other Councils, or something else? Again not looking for in depth details just how he got so good in a time of presumably relative peace.

3. Is it possible to detect/sense when Alex uses the Fateweaver? Have you with your magic been able to sense when he is using or is the fateweaver’s magic in general undetectable when he uses it?

1.Kinetic is the most common, I think – it tends to be the one fire mages have the most natural affinity for.  Vari just carries a nonmagical backup.  

2.Peace is a relative term – the Council has quite a lot of low-level fights that they get into on a regular basis.  The Order of the Shield are also the ones who get assigned the ‘black-ops’ style missions that aren’t officially supposed to exist.  I get the feeling that a lot of the jobs that Landis has done are the kinds of things that doesn’t get talked about and never officially happened.

3.I can’t sense it at all.  My magesight is pretty bad, though, so that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.  I’ve never been much good at the sensing spells that mages always seem to have up their sleeves.

From: Alex

Do you know what the common abilities of mind, charm, and chance adepts are? Not looking for an in depth answers just what the common types are.

Mind – reading surface thoughts.  Charm – making people like you.  Chance – just general short-term good luck.  These are all the most common by a mile, so much so that people sometimes get surprised when they run into mind, charm, or chance adepts that CAN’T do those things.  They’re all among the most basic spells that mages of those types learn, too.

From: Kevin

Hey Luna just two quick questions.

Have you ever heard of Death Magic and Mind Magic forming a hybrid? I heard Life could with Mind as personal enhancement effects if Death was mixed with Mind and would it be similar to that or not?

And have you ever seen/heard of Elemental Mages creating attacks from behind like Richard did with that Jarnaff the Force Mage and Alex as opposed to the regular hand to sight spells most elemental mages use?

Death/mind hybrids are mental combat specialists.  They tend to specialise in stuff like direct mind attacks, mental paralysis, and inflicting damage on a target’s brain.  It’s probably the most feared and disliked combination of magical abilities that you can get – people already don’t trust death mages, and they really don’t trust mind mages, so you can imagine how they react to someone who’s got the worst abilities of both.  I’ve never met one in the apprentice programme, and if there was one, they’d probably be keeping their magic type a secret if they knew what was good for them.

Elemental mages have some ways of attacking a target from behind, but it’s a lot harder than attacking in a straight line, and most of them don’t do it.  

From: Alicia W.

Hey, Luna! How’s things?

I hope you & Vari are holding up OK given the current state of affairs.

I was appalled Saffron had the gall to send you an email pestering you about Alex, but I loved your response! (Ask Luna #182) I literally laughed out loud at the idea of her camping out on Trafalgar Square for days or weeks hoping Alex will show up (which of course, he won’t). Do you think she’ll set up camp there in hopes of catching him? I think she might be desperate enough to try it.

Anyway, as fun as that thought is, the reason I’m writing today is because I am fascinated by gate stones & other magical items. They come in such a dizzying variety of forms. Alex has described a few gate stones in the books, like the one to the ravine outside Arachne’s lair which was carved out of a piece of wood. And there was that cup that made everything put in it taste of chili sauce. And, of course, there was that book that made you forget about it as soon as you looked at the first page.

1. Can any mage create a gate stone, or does it require a space mage to do it?
2. Do mages use a ritual to lay the spell down on a magic item? If not, can you tell us a bit more about how it’s done?
3. Can either you or Alex create your own magical items?
4. What’s the coolest or weirdest gate stone you’ve come across?
5. What’s the coolest or weirdest magical item in the Arcana Emporium right now?

Stay safe!

Alicia

Vari is . . . okay.  I hope.  

Creating a gate stone is actually more about your skill with item creation that your skill with gates, so you don’t need to be a space mage, or even a mage, at least in theory.  Alex told me that I’d be able to do it, and actually thought I might have a talent for it – I’ve been working on it in my spare time, but I don’t have much of that these days, and you really need a teacher to get the hang of item creation, at least if you want to get any good.  It’s the kind of thing that Arachne would have been really good at, but, well . . .

There’s a technique for creating gate stones that uses actual gemstones – those are pretty cool, though kind of expensive.  Another technique I’ve seen uses actual fruit or berries that are grown in the target area.  Then you eat them to cast the spell.  It apparently makes them much much easier to make, but obviously they don’t last very long, so kind of the opposite of gemstones.  

And as for the weirdest item . . . it’d be one of the ones I don’t tell anyone about or keep on the shelves.  Let’s just say that I can see why Alex kept a safe room with a big lock on the door.

From: Nana

Dear Luna,

1. Did Anne tell you how she got Alex out of the shadow realm? I assume it must have taken some time for the Fateweaver to transform his body. How did she manage that before the isolation ward made it impossible to go back?

2. I’m also really sad about Sonder. He had his flaws but he didn’t deserve to die 🙁 How does Anne feel about killing him seeing as she was actually friends with him as opposed to everyone else she killed while being possessed by the jinn?

3. Have you had enough time to get to know the “new” Anne better? I hope you’re not scared of her anymore!

Have a nice day!
Nana

1. Never actually asked.  Gate stone, I’d guess.  The main defensive wards were down by then so it would have been doable, but not easy.  

2. I haven’t asked.  Honestly, I’m a bit afraid to.  That whole month is kind of a huge minefield for both of us, and we’ve sort of silently mutually agreed to avoid it, at least for now.  I mean, if I ask her, and she tells me about how bad she feels about it, that’s one thing.  But what if she doesn’t particularly feel like that?  What am I going to do then?

3. Yes, a bit, and yes, I am.  She’s comfortable to talk to, but again, we haven’t had ‘that’ conversation.  And again, the biggest reason I haven’t brought it up is because I’m not sure what answers I’ll get when I do.  

From: Daniel

Okay, so, did the Fateweaver kill Alex and take his memories/personality or what?

Some explanation of how this question came about and why it bugs me enough to ask:

The Epilogue of Risen is written from your point of view, so we aren’t getting any more peeks into the mind of the entity that came out of the Fateweaver merging with Alex like with earlier portions of the book, but “Alex” in that epilogue states that he can no longer path-walk or even focus very much on futures too far from the immediate moment. Also all of the items that were keyed to his magical signature don’t work for him any more (keeper signet, etc.; but there is no mention of the dreamstone, so whether or not he can still use it would be something of a “test” to determine if he’s still Alex or not).

Elsewhere on the internet someone compared this question to the Ship of Theseus debate (if all of the components of a ship are replaced, is it still the same ship?).

In other fictional works (about cloning and the philosophical debate about whether the original person dies or not when the clone wakes up) the stance is that if there is continuity of experience, then the “clone” is still the same person as the original (as long as the original body is dead before the clone wakes up) and in that fiction series the “clones” experience no gaps in memory when transitioning from original body to clone.

Meanwhile, according to Risen, there is a break in memory/continuity between when Alex thinks he is dying and when the Fateweaver/Alex entity wakes up (according to Fateweaver/Alex, he woke up after Anne was done helping the Fateweaver replace Alex’s entire body). Fateweaver/Alex also tells you that he’s having odd memories coming up in his mind that belonged to previous wielders of the Fateweaver (which indicates that the entity currently in the form of Alex and with his personality/memories being dominant is actually an amalgam of all previous wielders and it just takes time to assimilate new information).

Okay, I’m not really the philosopher type, so this isn’t really my field of expertise or anything, but as far as I can see, what you’ve done here is that you’ve spent a while asking a question, then spent a while giving an answer to your own question.  I’m not actually sure I can give you any better answer than the things you’ve tossed out already.  

For what it’s worth, as far as I can tell, it feels like it’s him.  That’s good enough for me.  

From: Sierra

1. Would you consider Tobias to be a master mage on the level of Landis? I only ask because he blocked multiple force blades from Barrayar point blank with the power of a jinn behind it when Rain who is very good had trouble blocking force magic during the mission in Syria. Was this just a situational thing or is Tobias just really good at defensive magic like Landis is?

2. Aside from being a non-lethal attack is there a reason why a water mage would use Hydro Blasts in dangerous situations. I would have thought Tobias would have used disintegration rays against Vihaela but he used water blasts, are they faster or more energy efficient, or is it something else entirely?

3. In the Arcana it mentioned that while not as good as air mages water mages have some sort of mobility effect do you know what this is? Force and air mages are obvious and fire mages can do their own Phoenix flight but what spell do water mages use when they want to get around faster?

1. Tobias is very good, but I don’t know if he’s master level or not.  Probably he’d be pretty close.  Being labelled a ‘master’ is more of a political thing than a skill thing – it’s more about how famous and admired you are than anything else.  
2. They’re fast and easy to cast, and because they’ve got a strong kinetic component they usually do something even if they don’t get through the target’s defences.  Even if you shield against a hydroblast, it’ll probably still knock you off balance and make it hard for you to counterattack.  So water battlemages tend to spam them.  They’re also a lot easier to scale down to nonlethal levels than a disintegrate spell, so if you’re only going to specialise in one spell, and you’re not a complete psycho, it makes more sense to master hydroblasts than disintegrate rays.
3. Water transport, mostly.  They can swim really, really fast, quicker than any sprinter.  Obviously that’s not much use if there isn’t a sea or a river around, but if you’re the one who gets to pick the terrain . . .

From: Brian

1. Do you know how many adepts Richard had in his army? Not a specific number just a rough estimate?

2. What happened to the survivors of Drakh’s army or the ones that he didn’t bring with him are they being hunted or sentenced by the Light Council?

3. Are there air adepts who can fly? And what are the more common air adepts types. I don’t recall meeting that many but for some reason I get the feeling after fire they are one of the most common unless I am mistaken?

1. Depends what you mean.  If you included all the ones that fought with him at one time or another, a few thousand.  If you limit it to the ‘true believers’ and the veterans, the ones who were the real core of his army, more like a few hundred.  There were also a lot who’d help out in various ways but who wouldn’t go on really dangerous missions.  
2. That’s been an ongoing political argument for a while.  Some of the Keepers were arguing for harsh sentences and hunting down the survivors, others in the Council wanted a general amnesty.  So far the amnesty faction seems to be winning, partly because Landis backed it, and partly due to war exhaustion/Council casualties.  
3. They tend to fall into two categories:  mobility types (who can lighten their body to jump or fly) and attacker types (who can use electrical attacks or blades of hardened air).  And yes, they’re one of the more common types.